1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data management device, data management system and, method for managing data by which a plurality of users can browse stored data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a personal computer, a digital still camera, a digital video camera, and a portable digital audio player have come into widespread use. Accordingly, many kinds of contents such as a document, still image, moving image and music have been digitized. These contents are stored and utilized in a mass-storage medium, e.g., a hard disk drive. Among these contents, photographs and videos shot by individuals can be transmitted to a family and a friend by attaching them to an electronic mail message. The photographs and videos are also put on a home page and immediately exchanged using the Internet. This has changed communication to be more diverse.
To exchange small-volume data in such communication, the electronic mail message is often used. In the case of large-volume data, the home page is often used. This is because in the case of an electronic mail system, a transmit and receive size of data is limited.
Under such circumstances, in order to create a home page which can open contents to the public, a certain extent of knowledge and time are required. Hence, various services have been proposed which can easily open contents on the Internet. A user utilizes such service to open his photographs and videos to a family and a friend and can have a chat about the opened contents by writing on a home page and transmitting electronic mail. Further, in such a process, new photographs and videos are further introduced to each other to expand a topic of conversation, and further communication is developed.
In many cases, a user belongs to various groups such as a family, colleagues in a company, friends in school days, and fiends having a common interest. Thus, there has been a growing need to designate a plurality of these groups to which his contents are opened.
Conventionally, when contents are opened to the designated groups, a community ID and a password are prescribed for every group. At the time of access, the community ID and the password are input (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-229282).
Further, when contents are opened, an opening destination group is selected from a list of groups in order to carry out opening setting.
However, in the above-described conventional example, when new contents are opened in relation to certain contents opened to a plurality of groups, the new contents are opened only to the groups corresponding to a community ID that is input at the time of access. Hence, access is individually carried out by each community ID to confirm whether contents serving an association destination are present. Then, the opening of desired contents has to be set, which is a complicated operation.
Further, once the contents serving the association destination are opened to all relevant groups, there is a possibility that the contents are browsed by a user in a group unrelated to its own destination. Furthermore, if contents are opened to all groups that it belongs to, there is inconvenience that the contents are unexpectedly opened to groups unrelated to the contents that serve the association destination. Hence, opening destination groups to which the contents are served, have to be first examined. Then, a suitable group is selected from these opening destination groups to set new opening destination groups, which is a complicated operation.